


can i borrow a cup of sugar?

by thebitterlesbian



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Holtzmann is a baker, and a bad neighbor, and moves in next to Erin, mostly AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-05 13:57:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11014803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebitterlesbian/pseuds/thebitterlesbian
Summary: Crrrrrrrrrrrrash."Sorry about that. I just wanted to test out the kitchen while I was unpacking. That’s actually why I’m here. It seems I’ve temporarily…lost some things in the kerfuffle of unpacking. So, could I borrow a cup of sugar?” Holtzmann smiled at Erin.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! I watched Bridesmaids a while ago and have been highly invested in watching reruns of Cupcake Wars and Bakers vs. Fakers on Food Network, so this happened. I hope you enjoy!

_Crrrrrrrrrrrash_.

Erin’s eyes snapped open to bright early-morning sunlight peeking through her curtains. She lifted her head a few inches from her pillow and her eyes focused on the alarm clock next to her bed. _7:43_. With a groan, her head fell back onto the pillow. It was throbbing, and her mouth felt like she had tried to swallow a bucket of sand. She regretted the last drink she’d had after getting home from her awful date the night before, even if it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

She squeezed her eyes shut again and tried to will herself back to sleep, but everything was too bright. Sitting up with a groan, she reached for the glass of water and bottle of ibuprofen she had put out the night before. She felt better after draining half the water from the glass and she let herself flop back onto the pillow.

The ibuprofen eased the pounding in her head and she willed herself to relax. She rolled onto her stomach and tugged her comforter up over her head before sighing into the comfortably claustrophobic darkness. Erin slowed her breathing and tried to let herself sleep again.

It almost worked.

She was half-asleep again by the time a second crash, almost as loud as the first but muffled by the thick blanket over her head, broke the comfortable silence and pulled her back to consciousness. Saturdays were the one day each week Erin gave herself to sleep in, and her hangover intensified at the thought of getting out of bed so early, but she knew she’d never be able to fall back asleep. Instead, she inhaled deeply and held it for a moment before letting it out in another groan.

“Can’t I get _one_ day?” she asked no one in particular as she threw the covers from her body to the foot of her bed. Erin sat up and frowned at the wall in front of her, which was the only one that her apartment shared with a neighbor, since there were only two apartments on each floor of the two-story building. The small building was something she had been grateful for, although it made every noise seem louder that morning. “Jerk.”

The apartment next door had been empty for a few weeks after the last neighbor, a quiet honors student at one of the other schools in the city, had graduated and moved out. She vaguely remembered seeing a box in the hallway the day before, but figured it had been a contractor fixing something in the apartment.

Erin glanced at the clock again. It was just after 8:00, and she rolled her eyes as she swung her legs from the bed and stood up with a stretch. She walked into her bathroom, shedding her pajamas as she went, and turned on the shower.

Almost an hour later, Erin walked into the kitchen. Her damp hair hung loosely around her shoulders, leaving wet spots on her gray t-shirt. She was halfway through making a pot of coffee when she realized that her kitchen wasn’t nearly as silent as it should have been.

Music drifted through the walls, a song with a fast beat and high notes. Erin rolled her eyes and shook her head, but tried to ignore the music as she continued to brew coffee and poured herself a bowl of cereal.

She made her way to her small kitchen table and sat down. The music was louder, and she realized someone must have been playing music right on the other side of the wall, which was her neighbor’s kitchen. Annoyance rose in her chest at her new mystery neighbor, but she just shook her head again and lifted her mug of coffee to her lips.

_Crrrrrrrrrrrrash._

Erin jumped and coffee splashed over the rim of her mug and onto her lap when another crash rang out over the music. She gritted her teeth as the hot liquid sunk through her jeans and slammed her palm against the table in irritation. In all the time she’d been living in her building, she’d never experienced an annoying neighbor, but she supposed there was a first time for everything. The thought didn’t stop her from glaring at the wall between her apartment and her neighbor as if she could shoot lasers from her eyes.

Erin finished her cereal and rinsed her bowl out before leaving it in the sink. She picked up her bag from the coffee table in front of the couch in the living room and took her seat at the kitchen table again. She pulled a stack of notes from out of her bag and read through them. Abby’s handwriting was crammed into the margins of each page so that there was barely any white space. They were close to a breakthrough on their newest project, and they had both had a productive week at Columbia.

After reading through the notes and writing out a few calculations of her own, Erin turned her attention to grading homework. She tried to focus on the numbers in front of her, but her concentration was broken by the thudding music from next door and the crashes and bangs that punctuated the songs every few minutes.

She was halfway through grading her students’ papers when a drawn-out crash that ended with a bang startled her so badly she left a large red spot from her marker on a student’s assignment.

 “Oh my _God_!” Erin muttered loudly, pushing her chair back from the table and standing up all in one motion. She turned towards the wall at the other end of the kitchen, eyebrows drawn together in another scowl.

Erin crossed the living room in four steps. As she moved, the music from the apartment next door grew even louder for a second before it quieted again. She wrapped her fingers around the doorknob and squeezed her eyes shut once, bracing herself for confrontation before yanking open the door and stepping through.

She couldn’t tell exactly what happened next.

Her foot collided with something, stopping her dramatic stomp into the hallway. Her eyes flew open to take in a young woman with pale skin, clear blue eyes, and blonde hair piled into a complicated bun on the top of her head. Erin shouted in surprise as the other woman’s hand, which Erin assumed was in the middle of getting ready to knock on her door, punched her shoulder lightly. The other woman’s eyes were wide in shock, but her lips quickly drew back into a grin.

Erin leapt back into her own apartment in shock. Several exclamations, ranging from fear to confusion to anger, flew to her lips. She tripped over her own tongue, stammering as she tried to question the stranger who was still grinning at her. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and shook her head.

She opened her mouth slightly to speak, but she paused to let her eyes travel up and down the other woman’s body. The blonde was dressed in loose jeans that were ripped in several places and her dark t-shirt was covered in streaks of flour. Her eyes sparkled under the overhead lights in the hallway and Erin could see laughter alive in the blue pools. Another streak of flour started above her eyebrow and Erin followed the line up into her blonde hair before her eyes fell to the other woman’s lips. She was still grinning, but as Erin took in the figure in front of her, the other woman’s face shifted into a smaller apologetic smile. She bit her bottom lip between her teeth as she waited for Erin to speak, and the action made Erin’s knees buckle slightly. The anger had faded only slightly at the sight of the other woman, but Erin still found it hard to speak when she tried.

“Hello? Who-who are you?” She choked out. Her heart was still racing, and she tried to ignore the way it spiked when her eyes travelled back to the blonde’s lips again.

“Holtzmann!” the blonde said. Her voice was low but Erin could hear the same laughter in the other woman’s words that still sparkled in her eyes. She extended a hand towards Erin before realizing her fingers were covered in flour and quickly pulling it back to wipe it on her shirt. She grasped Erin’s hand and shook it excitedly, continuing in a rushed tone, “Virgo. Avid skier. Gluten- _full_. And 100% jazzed to meet you.”

Erin let her hand fall to her side as Holtzmann pulled hers back and wiped it on her shirt again. A hundred questions crashed through her mind. Who _was_ this woman? Why was she there? Was she the source of the racket that had woken Erin up? Did the laws of gravity not apply to her hair? Why did the way she ran her tongue over the curve of her bottom lip make Erin’s knees weak? Her mind caught on the last question but she ignored it, instead offering a greeting of her own.

“Erin Gilbert,” she said with a small smile. Her hands fluttered awkwardly around her upper thighs until she shoved them into her pocket. “Did you, um, did you just move in or something? That place has been empty for a couple weeks.”

“Yep, just moved in yesterday,” Holtzmann nodded and gestured to the door next to Erin’s, where music was still playing. The sound pulled Erin from the trance seeing her new neighbor had put her in, and she felt her face slip back into a frown.

“And were you trying to blow up the kitchen or something?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest and leaning slightly against the doorway in what she hoped was a smooth way. Her eyes darted in the direction of Holtzmann’s apartment then back to the blonde in front of her, who was smiling apologetically again.

“No, I was just baking! Cupcakes! They’re kind of one of my specialties,” the other woman said. Her hands moved excitedly as she talked and a long blonde curl came loose from her bun. She swept a flour-covered hand over her forehead, pushing the curl back into place and leaving three more streaks of flour behind.

“Is your baking always so…loud?” Erin asked, frowning at the other woman. She didn’t do much baking herself, but she was pretty sure it should be a relatively crash-free activity.

“Usually is, Ms. Gilbert. Helps with the process,” Holtzmann said, waving her hands around her head again.

“Oh, you can call me Erin,” she said with a small smile before taking a deep breath and pausing. “But could you, um, keep it down before 8:00 AM on a Saturday?” A nervous giggle escaped her lips after the question.

“I can try, Erin. Sorry about that. I just wanted to test out the kitchen while I was unpacking,” the blonde explained, shrugging apologetically. “That’s actually why I’m here. It seems I’ve temporarily…lost some things in the kerfuffle of unpacking. So, could I borrow a cup of sugar?” Holtzmann smiled at Erin.

Erin was slightly bothered at being asked for a favor by the woman who had woken her up way too early. She scoffed slightly and shook her head, but still found herself turning slowly and walking towards her kitchen. She returned to her doorway a minute later, a full bag of sugar in her hands.

Holtzmann was leaning against the doorframe and, despite her slight annoyance with the other woman, Erin let her eyes wander over the curve of her hip as she held the sugar out to the blonde. She snapped them up to meet Holtzmann’s blue ones as she stepped back. The other woman held her gaze for a few moments and Erin clapped her hands together nervously to break the silence.

“You can keep it. I won’t really use it,” Erin said honestly. She never baked and barely used sugar in her cooking. “I’m not really even sure why I have it.” She bit her lip to stop herself from rambling.

“Are you sure?” Holtzmann asked, frowning slightly. “Really, it’s only a cup. Maybe a cup and a half.”

“Yeah, no, I don’t use it in cooking and I don’t bake much. Well, ever,” Erin smiled.

“Well, thanks,” Holtzmann said, returning Erin’s smile. “And I’ll try to keep it down a bit in there. No promises though!”

The other woman pushed off from the doorframe with her shoulder and took one step back. The fluidity of her motions made Erin’s mouth go dry. Holtzmann cradled the bag of sugar in one hand and saluted Erin with the other before sidestepping into her own apartment. The door closed with a sharp snap that pulled Erin back to reality.

Erin pushed her front door shut and listened as the music from Holtzmann’s apartment faded slightly. Her face fell into confused frown as she recounted everything that had happened. Her heart thudded as her mind’s eye ran back over the woman’s lips and eyes and hips and neck. She swallowed thickly and blamed the reaction on the awful date the previous night, then reminded herself that the other woman had rudely woken her up. Her heartbeat slowed.

With a sigh, she walked into the kitchen to pour another cup of coffee before sitting back down at her table and sipping at it slowly. Every so often, a soft thud or crash rang out over the faint music, and her annoyance spiked slightly with each sound as the effect of meeting her neighbor wore off. She spent the next few hours at her table, steadily reading through the rest of her students’ papers as the morning slipped into the afternoon.

By the time she had settled into the couch after a late lunch with a cheesy rom-com playing in the background, the incident earlier in the morning had almost completely slipped from her mind. The noises had stopped and the music was drowned out by the corny dialogue from the movie. She let herself get lost in the film until a sharp knock at the door pulled her from her daydreams.

Erin stood up quickly, the remote falling to the floor with a clatter that made her jump. Her heart was still beating faster than normal as she made her way to the front door. She opened it slowly, half-expecting her new neighbor to greet her and try to return the bag of sugar.

But her doorway was empty when she swung the door open. Erin stuck her head out into the hallway and turned it left and then right, but the hallway was empty, too. She leaned further out to see if her neighbor’s door was open, but that was closed, too. She shook her head and moved to step back into her apartment when something on the welcome mat outside of her door caught her eye.

Erin bent down to pick up the item. It was a cupcake on a small paper plate, light pink icing sticking out over the edge of a metallic wrapper. A piece of bright blue paper stuck out from underneath the wrapper, folded over twice. A small smile curled at the corners of her lips as she backed into her apartment and nudged the door shut behind her with her foot.

The smile was still on her face when she set the plate down on the counter near her kitchen sink. She picked up the cupcake and slowly unwrapped it to reveal a light brown chocolate cake. It was iced beautifully; the whole thing was beautiful, for a cupcake.

Erin lifted the cupcake to her mouth, shifting her weight so that she was leaning against the counter. Before taking a bite, she unfolded the blue paper with her left hand. A few lines were written in an untidy scrawl:

_It’s strawberry-covered chocolate. You said you don’t bake, but I figured you could use some sweetness, hot stuff._

The note was signed _J. Holtzmann_ , with a smiley face doodled next to her neighbor’s name. Erin felt warmth spread to her cheeks and knew they would be as pink as the frosting on the cupcake. She still wasn’t sure what it was about the cupcake that would have required the crashes and bangs the other woman had made all morning, but all thoughts of annoyance fell away when she bit into the dessert.

It was, quite possibly, the greatest thing Erin had ever tasted. The frosting was light and not-to-sweet and tasted like fresh strawberries. The center of the chocolate cake was filled with sweet chocolate whipped cream. Erin was no expert, and rarely let herself indulge in sweets, but she could tell that Holtzmann was a talented baker.

The cupcake was gone too soon, and Erin rinsed her hands under the faucet before picking up the wrapper and note. She turned towards the trashcan but hesitated before throwing the papers away. After a moment, she let the wrapper slip from her hand and fall into the trashcan. Without really being able to say why, she stuck the note to the front of the refrigerator with a magnet. It was the only bright splash of color on the otherwise-bare white door, but Erin smiled when she stepped back and looked at it.

That smile stayed as Erin crossed the living room and opened her front door, a thank-you already forming in her mind. She knocked twice on her neighbor’s door, then stepped back and folded her hands. Her smile grew as she nervously bounced on the balls of her feet and waited.

Erin felt the seconds tick by slowly, waiting as long as she could before knocking again. She briefly tried to convince herself that her desire to see her neighbor again was purely to thank Holtzmann and compliment her baking, and that it had absolutely nothing to do with a desire to run her eyes up and down the other woman’s body again.

Definitely not.

Erin’s smile slipped from her face as she knocked a third time, softer than before. Her hand dropped to her side and she mentally scolded herself her being so disappointed. She resolved to keep an eye (and ear) out for the other woman for a few days, but hoped to run into her sooner rather than later.

Erin walked slowly back into her apartment and shut the door behind her with a soft click. She returned to her spot on the couch, but couldn’t get lost in the movie again. Instead, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed out a message to Abby:

_Date last night was a nightmare. Meet for drinks tonight?_

Erin only had to wait a few minutes before her phone buzzed with Abby’s agreement. She gave her best friend a time and place, then wandered into her kitchen to put together a dinner for one. The note on the refrigerator door caught her attention so often it was almost annoying, because each time she felt heat pass through her body and pool in her cheeks.

The rest of the evening passed slowly. Erin listened for any sound from her neighbor’s apartment, but none came as she changed and brushed through her hair again for the night. Her own apartment was so quiet that a knock at the door startled her and she gasped.

Erin’s first hopeful thought was of Holtzmann, and there was a wide smile on her face as she pulled open her front door. It faltered a bit when she was greeted by her best friend, rather than her new neighbor, and that didn’t escape Abby’s attention.

“Oh, it’s you,” Erin said, trying to keep her voice light and joking. “Come in, I just gotta get my purse and shoes.”

“Nice to see you too, Er. Who were you expecting?” Abby snorted, nudging Erin a little and pushing her way into the apartment. “I thought last night’s date _didn’t_ go well?”

“Oh, god, no, not her. I was not expecting her. It was awful,” Erin said, shaking her head. She continued to talk as she walked into her bedroom. “Please never let me go on a date with anyone from the History department again. It was _almost_ worse than that time I went on a date with that woman from the Psych department.”

“Or maybe you should stop dating other professors,” Abby offered, snorting again. “It just stresses you out.”

“True,” Erin said as she reemerged from her bedroom. She bent over to slip on her shoes when her mind drifted to her neighbor. She rose up slowly when she was finished with her shoes, smiling slightly. “I _did_ meet my new neighbor today. She gave me a cupcake.”

“Must be true love,” Abby rolled her eyes as Erin picked up her purse. “Let’s go.”

Erin pulled the door shut behind her and locked it. Abby was halfway down the hallway when Erin turned from her door, but her eyes lingered on the metal numbers hanging near the top of her neighbor’s door. She stared at them for a few seconds before Abby called her name from down the hallway and she followed her friend, mind still stuck on her mysterious neighbor, delicious cupcakes, and exploding kitchens, and hoping that she would see the blonde soon.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erin has another run-in with her new neighbor.

The week following her new neighbor’s appearance at Erin’s door passed without significant interruption to Erin’s daily life. The apartment next to hers remained mostly quiet. In fact, after the events of the weekend before, the week seemed to Erin to drag on longer than most other weeks she had experienced since moving to New York, which was saying something, because most of Erin’s weeks drug on.

For the first few days after meeting Holtzmann, Erin’s eyes lingered on her neighbor’s door whenever she passed. More than once she found herself slowed to a near-stop, and the only way she started to move faster was to remind herself of her neighbor’s volume. Other than that, the week was normal: she woke up, went to work, and got home at the same time every day, just like she always did. Although she knew most people would be driven insane by the monotonous routine her life had taken on, it was familiar to her, and she didn’t usually mind.

As the week passed on, Erin’s mind drifted less and less to the intriguing blonde next door. By Thursday, she had all but forgotten about the other woman. Holtzmann had kept true to her word, and Erin hadn’t heard any crashes or explosions from her apartment.

Friday morning dawned, gray and cloudy. Although Erin was usually out of bed soon after her alarm, she stayed under the warm covers for a few extra minutes, pulling them up over her head against the rain that started to patter at the windows. Before long, she started to get dressed for the day, pulling on a dark gray skirt suit and adjusting it in the mirror. It was nicer than she wanted to dress on a rainy Friday, but she had a faculty mixer that evening and wouldn’t have time to get back to change. She rolled her eyes at her reflection, already dreading the event.

Erin moved through the rest of her morning routine as slowly as she had moved through waking up. She moved without thinking about it, pouring coffee and cereal nearly simultaneously. She sat down at the table and swept her eyes over the dark kitchen when the bright blue note from Holtzmann’s cupcake the previous weekend caught her eye.

The blonde flashed through her mind again, and Erin tried to push her out of her thoughts. She glanced at the clock as she placed her bowl and mug in the sink, and realized she was fifteen minutes late.

Erin turned to leave, but as soon as she stepped into the hallway, her eyes darted towards the other woman’s door. She shook her head as she pulled the door shut behind her and impatiently dug her hand through her purse for her keys.

All curiosity about her neighbor soon replaced with annoyance at herself as Erin continued to dig in her purse for her keys. After a minute she gave up and opened the door to step into the apartment. Her eyes fell on her keys, sitting on the table in her small entryway. Groaning at herself for putting herself even further behind schedule, she stepped back into the hallway and pulled her door shut with a _bang_ that was slightly louder than she’d meant it to be.

She was in the middle of sorting through her keys to find the one to her apartment’s lock when the door next to hers opened with a loud creak. It startled her, breaking through the buzz of worry over being late that had filled her head. She jumped slightly and dropped her keys.

The keyring hit the floor with a jingle, and Erin quickly bend down to pick them up, knocking her forehead against the door as she did so. She could feel her cheeks burning bright pink as she stood up, rubbing her forehead gently with her fingers, and turned to see Holtzmann staring at her from her doorway.

Her neighbor’s face was torn between concern and amusement, but amusement won out at the annoyed eye-roll Erin gave when her gaze met the blonde’s.

“Are you okay?” Holtzmann wheezed, one hand on her stomach, the other gripping the doorframe in an effort to keep herself from falling over from laughter.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Erin snapped, exasperation clear in her voice. She knew that, under any other circumstances, the blonde’s laughter would be captivating; in her increasingly-worried state, it was annoying. Hand still on her forehead, she turned her back on the other woman again. She jammed the key to the door into the lock and twisted, locking the door.

“You sure?” Holtzmann said, more seriously this time. The shift in her voice made Erin pause. She knew that she was going to be even later, but she didn’t teach any classes that morning and she would just explain to Abby what had happened.

Erin pulled the key from the door and dropped her keyring into her bag, then turned and looked at her neighbor again. She dropped her hand from her head and took in the other woman more clearly. Her blonde hair was styled into the same elaborate bun it had been the first time Erin had seen her, but with a pair of yellow-lensed glasses pushed up onto her head, too. Her lips were curled into a teasing smile and laughter sparkled in her bright blue eyes again. Erin’s eyes travelled downwards. Holtzmann was wearing a light blue button-down shirt with the top three buttons undone to reveal more pale skin stretched over collarbones and a hollow at the base of her throat. Erin swallowed before pulling her gaze back up to meet Holtzmann’s. This time, her clothes were free of flour streaks.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Erin laughed weakly and shook her head. Her heart was pounding and it made her head throb a little, but she ignored it as she continued. “Thank you for the cupcake over the weekend. It was absolutely delicious. You signed the note with a J, though…what’s that stand for?”

The other woman frowned at Erin’s question, but said, “Jillian, but you can call me Holtzmann.” Her lips curled into a smile as she recalled Erin’s compliment, which soon widened into a grin. “And thanks! All because of your sugar,” she said seriously, but followed the statement with a wink.

“Feel free to ask me for sugar whenever you need it, then,” Erin said, feeling her cheeks turn pink. She mentally chastised herself for such a weak pick-up line and took a deep breath before forcing her smile to grow wider. “But I’m about to be late for work so…I’ll see you around.”

“See you around,” Holtzmann agreed with a nod. There was something in her voice that made Erin wonder if maybe the other woman was hoping it would actually happen, too.

Erin couldn’t stop the curiosity that tugged at the back of her mind as she walked down the hallway, and she let questions about the other woman flow through her mind. She pondered as she half-ran to work, bumping into more than one person as she made her way to the university.

It seemed like the list of things she knew about Holtzmann was shorter than the list of questions she had about the other woman, and a desire to answer those questions flared up as she stepped into the building where her office and lab were located. Her thoughts were still on the other woman when she unlocked the door to the office she shared with Abby and flicked on the lights, thankful that the other woman was later than she was.

Erin forced herself to focus on work throughout most of the morning, but by the time she walked with Abby to the lab after lunch, her mind had strayed to thoughts of her neighbor and their encounter that morning. Erin was curious about the other woman, but the curiosity was almost evenly-matched with annoyance at the blonde’s exuberance. Her laughter echoed in Erin’s ears and she lost herself in it for what felt like a moment, her mind barely even registering the calculations on the whiteboard in front of her until…

“Earth to Erin, _Erin_!” Abby called for the eighth time that afternoon, waving a stack of papers through the air in front of Erin’s nose.

Erin jerked back to reality, pulling herself quickly from her daydream and shaking her head. The small lump that had formed on her forehead throbbed as she moved and she groaned softly, rubbing the spot with her fingertips again.

“What’s gotten into you today?” Abby asked, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“I met my neighbor again this morning,” Erin answered, hoping the eye roll she offered Abby would express annoyance and hide the way her cheeks burned slightly. “I was running late and she startled me and I dropped my keys and smacked my head on the door trying to pick them up.”

The blush that crept over Erin’s cheeks was pure embarrassment now, but she couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her lips as Abby howled with laughter in front of her. After a minute or two, Abby straightened up, brushing the tears out of her eyes.

“Erin Gilbert, you are as smooth as sandpaper,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Do you even know if she’s gay?”

Erin blushed furiously. She ignored Abby’s comment, but she knew that the other woman had a point. Thoughts of how to figure out if her neighbor was interested in women danced across Erin’s mind, but she pushed out the intruding ideas and turned her attention to the numbers on the whiteboard in front of her.

“No wonder you can’t figure it out, you have your signs here…and…your numbers here…” Erin slipped out of her chair and walked to the board, erasing figures and symbols with her left hand and replacing or rearranging them with the marker in her right.

After an hour of staring at the whiteboard, Erin sat heavily in her chair and leaned on the table, resting her head on her folded arms. A headache had started to build, focused on the lump on her forehead. She heard Abby moving behind her, erasing the whiteboards and locking the supplies in the cabinet for the weekend.

“Do we _have_ to go to this mixer?” Erin groaned, even though she already knew what her partner was going to say.

“Yes, Erin, we do,” Abby said, clapping a hand between Erin’s shoulders. A scowl pulled her eyebrows together, but she pushed her chair back and stood up anyway. “Thank you for not wearing tweed, by the way.” Abby dodged Erin’s punch.

Half an hour later, Erin’s light makeup from the morning had been reapplied and she had dragged her fingers through her hair in an attempt to get it to lay flat. She straightened the hem of her shirt underneath her jacket a final time as she followed Abby from the lab, flicking off the lights and locking the door behind her.

Shadows were already stretching across campus when Erin stepped onto the sidewalk next to Abby. She held her jacket closed with one hand while she walked against the slight chill in the air. They climbed the stairs to the building where the mixer was being held, and Erin could hear the chatter of voices and soft music drifting from the building’s open doors and windows.

The first stop the women made when they reached the large room full of faculty members was dropping their bags and jackets onto a pair of chairs at a still-empty table; the second stop, which followed the first very quickly, was to claim a glass of wine from one of the long tables that lined the walls of the room. Erin sipped it slowly as she followed Abby around between groups of professors and guests. She smiled at the few others she knew and offered contributions to conversations when she could, but stayed quiet most of the night.

By the time she had been at the party for the better part of an hour, Erin was nearly finished with her second glass of wine. She wasn’t drunk by any means, but her smile had grown wider and her giggles had become more frequent. She stayed next to Abby throughout the evening, giggling her way out of advances made by a dorky-looking professor from the math department.

“I think it’s time to get out of here,” Abby laughed as the poor guy walked away, shoulders hunched forward.

“Yes, please,” Erin groaned, slumping slightly against the wall. “My neighbor’s probably gonna wake me up at the crack of dawn again, like she did last weekend.” She rolled her eyes and straightened up, tugging her jacket tighter around her shoulders.

“Oh, the neighbor who can make you smack your head against the door?” Abby laughed, slipping her arms into the sleeves of her jacket.

“Yeah, that one,” Erin said, shaking her head before ducking it so that Abby couldn’t see the pink that was spreading over her cheeks. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about Holtzmann, besides intrigued by and oddly attracted to the other woman, and slightly annoyed at times. But if the previous weekend was anything to go by, Holtzmann would be setting off a metallic avalanche before 8:00 the next morning, and Erin wanted to get more than a few hours of sleep.

Erin couldn’t decide if she would rather be woken up by her neighbor or left to sleep in.

She followed Abby into the lobby of the building and out through the main doors. It was even cooler than when they had arrived and Erin shivered.  She shifted her bags on her shoulder and crossed her arms, setting off through campus next to Abby.

Her mind drifted to Holtzmann as they walked, and she only half-paid attention to what Abby was saying. By the time they reached the intersection where they parted, Erin had had to ask Abby to repeat herself at least a dozen times.

“Sorry, Abs, my mind is somewhere else tonight,” Erin said as she turned towards the street that would take her to her apartment building. “I’ll see you Monday?”

“Of course, Erin. And you should just ask her on a date or something,” Abby said, tilting her head and staring at Erin. A kind smile tugged the corners of her lips upwards.

“How about I see if she likes women first?” Erin laughed, turning back towards Abby.

“I _knew_ you didn’t know, Gilbert!” Abby half-shouted, her voice cutting over the chatter of the New York City street.

Erin just waved at the other woman over her shoulder and walked towards her apartment building as Abby continued on for a few blocks. Her mind drifted back to thoughts of her neighbor as she passed between pools of white cast by the streetlights. She unlocked the front door to her building and let it shut behind her, then walked down the hallway to her door. She moved from memory, her thoughts still debating how she felt about her neighbor.

Erin was so distracted that she almost missed the small container of clear plastic that sat on her welcome mat directly in the middle of her door. It caught her attention as she turned her key in the lock, and she bent down to pick it up as the door swung open.

A swirl of light blue topped with a few blueberries, stuck out over a white wrapper. A folded piece of paper, hot pink this time, stuck out from under the container and Erin picked both items up at once. She felt a wide smile dance across her lips as she closed and locked the door behind her, flicking on the kitchen lights and leaning against the counter to examine the gift.

She popped open the plastic container and lifted it up, taking in a delicate scent of berries. She set the container back down on the counter and slowly unfolded the note, the almost-familiar untidy scrawl making her smile grow even wider:

_Hope your head isn’t black and blue(berry, like this cupcake)._

_Really, I hope you’re okay._

_-Holtzmann_

The woman had doodled another smiley face to match the first at the end of her signature. Erin turned and tucked the note on the refrigerator under a magnet next to the first one. Then, she shifted her weight against the counter and pulled the cupcake gently out of the container.

Erin stared at the masterpiece for a few seconds before unwrapping it. The frosting was thick and fluffy, and three blueberries were set into the top of the swirl. She unwrapped the cupcake carefully, revealing a white cake underneath the wrapper. The realization that her mouth was watering made her blush slightly, and she quickly bit into the cupcake.

The creamy frosting tasted like berries with a hint of sweetness, and the vanilla cake was dotted with fresh berries. There was a hint of lemon that mingled with the berries. Erin smiled to herself as she read over the notes that hung side-by-side on her refrigerator door, enjoying each bite of the cupcake more than the last. Once again, the dessert was gone too soon and Erin was left staring at her refrigerator, empty-handed.

Erin glanced at her watch and bit her lip. _10:27_. Probably too late to be knocking on a neighbor’s door, but she turned back towards her front door with a sigh. She wanted to at least try to thank her neighbor a little sooner this time.

The first knocks were so soft that Erin could barely hear them. She knocked harder the second time, and held her breath as she waited.

The seconds ticked by and the other woman didn’t appear at her door. Erin raised her hand to knock again but thought better of it, instead turning and walking into her own apartment. A smile spread across her lips once more as she clicked the lock into place behind her. Her mind flashed back to the list of questions she’d been adding to throughout the day about her neighbor, and she promised herself that the next time she talked to the blonde, she would answer some of those questions.

Erin settled into her bed less than an hour later, pulling the sheets tight around her. The nightlight that glowed in the corner cast long shadows throughout the room, but she hadn’t slept without one in years.

The last thoughts that crossed her mind before she drifted off to sleep were of gravity-defying hairdos and icing swirls, and the electric blue eyes that came with both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the positive feedback on the first chapter! I'm so glad you liked it and I'm so glad I get to continue this story! If you liked this chapter (or didn't!) visit me on Tumblr at anothercaffeinatedlesbian and let me know why!  
> Again, a huge shoutout to ozthecat for all the help and encouragement and for reading this first!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This was the first thing I've been able to sit down and actually write in what feels like forever, so I hope you enjoyed it! Come visit me on Tumblr at anothercaffeinatedlesbian to let me know if you did (or didn't) and why! Also, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue this on or not (mainly because I have a few more cupcake-related puns to use), so if anyone would want them, I already have a few more chapters in the works!  
> And a shoutout to the always-wonderful ozthecat for being so encouraging and for reading this first!


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